To start Experimenta Design Biennale you have to ride your bike over a long catwalk/ticket desk/coffee table that circles the room and ends in the street. The theatrical gesture of putting the participant on a platform is not uncommon for Marcel Schmalgemeijer, who is now into scenography where lighting, sound, costumes and decor became his tools. Interview for Artichoke.
January 19th the Furniture fair in Cologne opens, showcasing a shipload of Dutch goodies. At the unofficial extra program Passagen you can see Dutch design from 4 (Surface) till 158 (Brand van Egmond). The Dutch Corner (25) promises Jorre van Ast with demountable tables, Dennis & Bert, David Lindberg with epoxy dividing walls, Niels & Sven and personal favorite Sloom & Slordig.
Ward van Gemert likes to break things. Analyzing and arranging the parts brings him to a new re-use: reconstructivism. Exploded Chandeliers where the wire is also the backbone, a Stretched Table. His Exploded Chair shows an infinite range of new design originating from a standard canteen chair. He even managed a chaise longue by Corbu. Remember the Exploded formula 1 car?
Erick van Egeraat is building a new home for law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. The tower follows the vertical layering structure with the anatomical analogy of legs, torso and head as is obligatory on the Zuidas. The three blocks called The Rock show different tactility. Inside vides and vision lines connect the three together. The interior is made in coproduction with Vitra.
The name of nature café La Porte is the clue to sustainability. The door (”porte” in French) is heavy and the extra energy you put in to open it, is contained for lighting. That’s all that’s visible. Architectural office RAU did not use coco or cork and that’s good. It shows sustainable design is accepted as a given thing and does not have to be flaunted.
Grandma’s oak cabinet. You love her, but hate the design. St. Joost academy in Breda graduate Ruud van Hemert makes precious wood into a new personal building material. Replex shows the old form in an new layered multiplex. Here’s a download of my article on him. We have an new and better Piet Hein Eek.
The art gallery from (very) small town Heusden called Priveekollektie made it through the selection for Design Miami, which starts December 3rd. Have an eye out for the following Dutch Designers: Pieke Bergmans, Reinier Bosch, Hans Kotter, Kranen/Gille, Alexander Pelikan, Wouter Scheublin, Roderick Vos en BCXSY. They’ll have new mindblowing work ready for Miami.
75 floating villa’s with a walkway and sauna center, is what concept developer Studio Noach asked architect Anne Holtrop to design. Theit Floating Gardens use Rexwall, a building material made of EPS from coffee cups and hamburger packaging. Plants and flowers can overgrow these walls and roofs, simular to the vertical garden of Musee du Quai Branly.
Dutch-Danish architecture firm Powerhouse won a Dutch Design Award for the interior, and an AM/NAi prize for the architecture of Villa 1. Next villa to sprout from their hands, in collaboration with RAU is Villa L. ‘Sustainable yet chique,’ says Nanne de Ru. The giant family home exists of three totally different layers. As evolving as family life itself.
An inflatable shell to crawl in, an explosive to express your anger, peacock feathers for the one you love. Design Academy graduate Grietje Schepers made colourfull and technical fashion. In the film ‘Proud as a Peacock’ she shows how her objects can help people to show their emotions in a physical way, just like animals do. More graduates waiting to be downloaded here.
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